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Game 60, Mariners at Rays

The M’s head to Tampa in the extremely rare position of being in better shape than the Rays. The M’s have won 5 straight, leading to lots of chatter in sports radio and elsewhere about making moves to add another bat. Kendrys Morales is no longer toxic, as the draft’s (almost) over. The M’s still have some trade chips to play if they want to, though to be honest, this spring has done some damage to the market value of guys like Nick Franklin. But look at Tampa – their playoff odds have tumbled, and as Eno Sarris wrote about today, they’re approaching the deadline looking more like sellers than buyers. We all know that David Price is on the block, of course, and it’s possible they could move him in July. There’s no big, obvious flaw here – their rotation’s middle of the road (though a bit unlucky) and their line-up’s worse than it’s been, but it’s not an obvious train wreck. But they start today 14 games back of the Jays, and firmly in last place of the AL East.

Today’s game pits two oft-injured hurlers against each other. Both Bedard and Young’s career record for innings pitched in a season came back in 2006. That’s not that long ago in the grand scheme of things, but the AL silver sluggers for OFs that year went to Jermaine Dye, Manny Ramirez and Vladimir Guerrero. The pitching gold gloves went to Kenny Rogers and Greg Maddux, which describes essentially every year from the late 80s to, oh, about 2006 or so. Both Bedard and Young had effective 2007s, with just a few less starts/innings than the year before, but as M’s fans remember well, 2008 kicked off a period of almost perpetual rehab and reinjury. Both suffered serious shoulder ailments, requiring multiple surgeries. A weakened Bedard’s actually pitched a fair number of innings as a BOR starter/swingman, while Young’s surgery habit proved difficult to break.

Bedard’s no longer a strikeout machine, and his walks have crept up, but he’s been decent for Tampa. Young’s been shockingly good for the M’s, despite the disappearance of his most noteworthy (and unlikely) skill – avoiding home runs. Young’s FIP almost matches his career worst mark, set in an injury-plagued (duh) 2009, and it’s not just the K:BB ratio. It’s that he’s given up 11 home runs in just 10 starts and 63 IP. But those 10 home runs have produced a grand total of 12 runs. Eight were solo shots, and two came with one on. Great, so it’s the old saying about Ryan Franklin circa 2003 – Sure, he gives up HRs, but he’s such a smart pitcher, he only gives up solo homers. There are few less-complimentary comparisons on this blog than the dreaded Ryan Franklin one, but really, is the idea of a skill in avoiding HRs situationally any more or less ridiculous than a skill in yielding OF fly balls that somehow don’t go past the OF? Chris Young makes very little sense, and I’m just going to enjoy it while the M’s are hot and we’re all excited about the M’s new draft picks. Yay Chris Young! Yay Alex Jackson! Yay Mariners!

That’s five lefties in the line-up against the left-handed Bedard. It’s not crazy though; in recent years, Bedard’s run reverse splits, and even looking back over his entire career, he was never particularly dominant against lefties. In fact, it’s *righties* who’ve been helpless against Bedard’s signature pitch, his curve ball. Lefties have hit it fairly well, and both lefties and righties have fared fairly well against Bedard’s fastball.

I wrote a long post about the Rainiers nationally televised game on CBS Sports Network last night, and I awoke to see that it never posted; wordpress notes vaguely that it simply “missed schedule.” Yeah, I noticed that too, wordpress. Anyway, did you hear about the game? Did you watch it? If you were able to find CBSSN, would you watch another MiLB game of the week, or are you pretty much *always* going to pick a big league game (even if it’s not the M’s) over a minor league one? I’m really curious to see how MiLB’s deal with CBSSN works out, and I hope the regional sports networks pick up a few more MiLB games (the way ROOT did with the Portland Beavers several years back). I’ll fully acknowledge that the market may not be all that large, though I think it’s considerably bigger than it was even 10-15 years ago.

The Rainiers lost, though, to the Albuquerque Isotopes, 6-0. They’ll get at ‘em again at Cheney Stadium tonight with Andrew Carraway on the mound.

Comments

Is it too early to call up Alex Jackson? Is he signed yet?
(facetious fan comment)

“All I hear about is how the Mariners have a great farming system, so why aren’t they good yet?”

(paraphrase of my boss)

bookbook on
June 6th, 2014 4:47 pm

Agricola est dominum

MrZDevotee on
June 6th, 2014 4:51 pm

Oh Brad, Brad, Brad…

Awful at bat with men on 2nd and 3rd and no outs… A foul back, a hack of a bunt attempt at a ball at head level, and a fan at a slow curve…

Ick.

Westside guy on
June 6th, 2014 5:04 pm

I would’ve watched the Rainiers game, if I had the chance. But I don’t get the channel.

Longgeorge1 on
June 6th, 2014 5:13 pm

Agricola et herba crescit

Longgeorge1 on
June 6th, 2014 5:16 pm

Cy Bedard

californiamariner on
June 6th, 2014 5:27 pm

Really hope Saunders isn’t hurt.

Paul B on
June 6th, 2014 5:30 pm

Fly ball pitcher and walks is a bad combination.

Woodcutta on
June 6th, 2014 6:23 pm

Leave it up to Miller to let a fly ball into left field turn into a double.

dc24 on
June 6th, 2014 6:43 pm

Miller’s had his fair share of faults, but I don’t really think you can blame that one on Miller. If Ackley could have gotten to it, he should have called it. I don’t think he was going to get there either though.

Woodcutta on
June 6th, 2014 7:10 pm

At first that is what I thought then on the replay he essentially just stabbed his glove in the direction he thought the ball might go. Unless the angle of the camera was deceiving it sure looked like he could have had that if he tracked it all the way. Plus he tried to grab the ball with his free hand and missed it so it forced Ackley to have to change direction at the last second. I have a hard time believing that would have been a double if Miller just lets Ackley get it on the bounce instead of touching it.

dc24 on
June 6th, 2014 7:31 pm

Maybe so, but it looked like a sure double to me as long as it landed because it was hit so high. Might could have been played better for a single, but that’s a tough play for anyone so I’m partial to Miller in that situation. Not many others though. Tough loss.